Savannah police officer on leave after battery arrest

A Savannah-Chatham police officer has been placed on administrative leave following his arrest in a domestic violence incident.

Ralph Joseph Difiore, 46, has been charged with battery/domestic violence and disorderly house after Pooler police responded Oct. 20 to a call from a neighbor.

Difiore is at least the fifth metro officer investigated for a domestic violence incident this year.

Difiore's girlfriend, Heather Cook Walters, 35, faces the same two charges. A Jan. 17 court date was set for both, according to the Pooler police report.

Pooler police charged both as the primary aggressors. They noted that Difiore had numerous scratches on his right arm, his neck, chest and face and had dried blood on his thumb.

Walters had scratches and "hard contact marks" on her right arm and both sides of her neck, according to the police report.

Officers responded about 12:40 a.m. based on a neighbor's concerns that he could hear yelling, things being thrown and a woman crying in the couple's residence.

Officers noted that Pooler police had frequently responded to the couple's residence for domestic disputes and determined that in this case, "mediation and separation was not the answer."

Police had filed a report in August following a shouting match between the two, but no arrests were made.

Their accounts to police differ in the Oct. 20 call. Difiore contends Walters was severely drunk and "stumbling all over the place." She began swinging and clawing at him when he tried to get her into bed, he told police.

When officers questioned Walters, they noted that at no time did she appear unsteady on her feet or falling-over drunk.

She denied ever striking Difiore, but said he choked her and threw a foot stool at her.

Walters told officers "she never touches him when they fight because of their line of work."

The police report lists her as working at Georgia Regional, a mental health hospital based in Savannah.